A national report shows the Houston area remains one of the top places in the country to build master-planned communities.

The recently released report from Metrostudy, which conducts industry analyses, showed that eight of the country's 20 biggest master-planned communities in 2013 are in the Houston area, six in Fort Bend County alone.

No region had as many neighborhoods on the list as Houston. The area is represented by five neighborhoods that were not among Metro- study's top 20 in 2012; three others fell off the list this year.

David Jarvis, regional director of Metrostudy's Houston market, said the strong showing is not surprising, given that the area has some of the highest job growth, housing demand and new homebuilding in the country.

"It's been like that for a long time - before the recession and through the recession," Jarvis said.

Communities in San Antonio and the Dallas area also ranked among the 20 biggest.

Master-planned communities are carefully laid out and planned from inception, incorporating not just residential building but also retail, commercial and other amenities. They are usually built on large tracts of undeveloped land.

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Big neighborhoods

Eight master-planned communities in the Houston area rank among the nation's 20 largest for the 12-month period ending in June. Three other local neighborhoods fell from the annual list.

The biggest 20 of these combined started more than 14,900 homes in the 12-month period that ended in June, a 35 percent increase over the same period in 2012 and a 61 percent jump from 2011. The biggest community on this year's list was The Villages northwest of Orlando, Fla.

There were eight new additions to the list around the country, but three Houston-area communities slipped out of the ranking: Shadow Creek Ranch, Bridgeland and Telfair.

Johnson Development Corp. had four projects on the list - more than any other developer. Its Riverstone in Fort Bend County recorded the second-highest percentage gain in new home sales among all others in the study, with a 113 percent increase from last year.

It followed a community in Orange County, Calif., that recorded 121 percent growth.

"All our communities are seeing a balance of relocations from other parts of the country and other parts of Houston," said Doug Goff, Johnson Development's chief operating officer. "Families want value from their home purchase, a community with extensive amenities, proximity to their workplaces and quality schools."

Cinco Ranch and The Woodlands were the only two communities among the top 20 that grew at a slower pace than last year, according to the study. These two developments, however, are less than 15 percent away from capacity.

Lack of zoning

Jarvis said major companies and groups laid the groundwork for this phenomenon years ago because of the Houston area's lack of zoning. He said developers bought many thousands of acres and then were able to control where office, retail and residential would go.

"These are our answer to zoning," he said. "There is a market for it, and buyers have been in love with it ever since."

Jarvis said the demand for living in large master-planned communities is so high that many are reaching capacity, and he expressed concern that development is not keeping pace.

"There is a lot of room in the market for more of this," he said. "We are not getting it done."

Erin Mulvaney covers real estate for the Houston Chronicle's business desk. She writes breaking news and trend stories about development, growth and neighborhoods. She also covers business travel and airports. She joined the Chronicle in 2012 as a breaking news reporter, covering shootings, explosions, trials and scandals. A Beaumont native, she has a degree in journalism from the University of Texas. She previously worked in Austin and wrote about politics and policy for several publications.